


i'll find my way inside your heart

by solarsenshi



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Fuckboy Okumura Eiji, Jock Okumura Eiji, M/M, Minor Shorter Wong/Yut-Lung, Nerd Ash, Nonbinary Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-07-25 23:27:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20034082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/solarsenshi/pseuds/solarsenshi
Summary: sometimes, that annoying jock turns out to be the greatest gift you'll ever find in high school.





	i'll find my way inside your heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [knightargents](https://archiveofourown.org/users/knightargents/gifts).

> hey there! this is another request from may and it was honestly so much fucking fun to write. if you'd like a fic yourself, you can check out my pinned tweet on twitter!

High school is a fucking nightmare.

Ash is certain of this as he sits on the bleachers with Shorter while the other boy takes what Ash thinks may be the longest hit of a joint known to main. Ash  _ knows _ this idiot vapes, but they’re banned so Shorter just breaks the rules in a worse fashion. 

Shorter thinks he’s iconic, or something. Ash just thinks he’s dumb.

Ash sighs and squints across the field. " High school is a fucking nightmare,” he says aloud when Shorter does not seem to comprehend that his sigh is  _ important to notice _ . He needs a better best friend, but he doesn’t think he’ll find someone so willing to pat his hair and call him pretty while feeding him the best food in all of Chinatown.

Shorter moves the joint from his lips and bobs his head a little. He’s higher than the sea level and Ash is actually kind of impressed. “You right, man. Any reason in particular?” This is also why Shorter can’t be replaced — no one else would have asked the follow up question. 

“That boy right  _ there _ .” Ash points across the field with such ferocity that Shorter can  _ hear _ his elbow pop. White people have no sense of peace. 

Shorter is unimpressed because he has to actually move to see who Ash is even pointing at. It even takes him a second to follow the finger because Ash is just so enraged and Shorter is just so fucking high. He blinks once then twice and turns to Ash in confusion. “E _ iji _ ?”

Okumura Eiji is the star of the track team, though he doesn’t do much in the way of running. To Ash’s understanding, Eiji is a pole vaulter, which means he just throws his whole body over a wobbly little pole for the people to cheer. Ash supposes that Eiji is a nice enough guy, he doesn’t lord his jock status over the people like some of his other varsity counterparts, but there’s just something about him that Ash hates. 

“Yeah, him. He gets on my nerves,” Ash opens his bottle of pepsi with what Shorter thinks an obscene and unnecessary amount of aggression. Ash really needs to find him some peace. 

“Why does he get on your nerves, Ash?” Shorter is nothing if not eager to constantly play along with Ash’s games. “Tell gege  _ all _ about it.”

Ash squints at him. “Are you really being sarcastic when I can report you for smoking that loud joint on campus?”

“You’re not a snitch.” It’s short and frank and Ash can’t help but agree. He’s _not_ a snitch, but sometimes he wishes that he was so Shorter would be nice to him on a regular basis. “But forreal, tell gege Shorter why you don’t like Eiji. He’s deadass one of the nicest sports heads I have ever encountered at this hell school.” 

Ash puffs up his cheeks before he takes a sip of his iced tea. He watches Eiji stretch and finds his eyes drawn to his thick thighs and the muscles in them before he chokes a little and has to pound on his chest. “He’s obnoxious.”

“Oh worm?”

“_W_ _ orm _ .”

While Shorter doesn’t believe that Ash really has some deep boned beef with Eiji, Ash is having some very distinct memories about some of his past experience with the pole vault star. With a huff, he explains them.

p(´⌒｀｡q)

Ash is at his locker when he hears the tell tale sounds of some sports team or the other making their way down the hall. Usually they pay him exactly zero mind — he’s a nerd of the highest degree and has a reputation of being inhospitable to people he doesn’t care much about — but for  _ some _ reason this reputation doesn’t carry to the track team and the headasses on it. 

“Hey!” One of them calls, loud and obtrusive, but Ash checks his schedule and grabs his art history textbook. “Hey,  _ pretty boy _ !”

Ash knows he’s pretty. People tell him every day and he doesn’t actually hate the reminder, but the  _ way  _ this cookie cutter jock in his blue and cream varsity jacket says it has Ash reeling in anger. 

Textbooks held fast to his chest, Ash turns around sharply with his mouth open, fully ready to tear this meathead into shreds when he actually looks at him. 

Okumura Eiji isn’t particularly tall or anything, Ash actually has a little bit of height on him, but he  _ is _ pretty. His hair is fluffy and looks unstyled, probably artifice, and his eyes are big brown and pretty and had the circumstances been different, Ash is sure he’d actually like him very much. 

Instead of allowing himself to melt like he kind of wants to, Ash lifts his chin and looks  _ down _ at Eiji like his life and dignity depend on him asserting his dominance. In a way, he supposes that they do. “Who the hell are you calling pretty boy?”

Eiji is unbothered. He leans against the locker next to Ash’s and reads his name slowly. “Aslan Jade Callenreese. That’s you, right? That’s who I’m calling pretty.”

Ash hates Okumura Eiji. He hates him from the top of his fluffy head to the tips of his scuffed up Adidas superstars. 

p(´⌒｀｡q)

Shorter holds up a hand to stop Ash (and also wave some smoke away from his face), raising a brow at his best friend. “You’re  _ mad  _ because he called you pretty?”

Ash stares at him as if he missed the whole point of the story. He probably has, but he also  _ knows _ that’s what this story sounds like. “It’s not that he called me pretty, it’s the  _ way  _ he called me pretty. Keep up.”

“Bruh, do you know how high I am right now? I can’t keep up with shit.” This isn’t entirely true. Sometimes Shorter thinks faster and smarter when he’s high out of his mind. 

Sometimes, though, he wants to curl up in bed with a family size bag of flamin' hot cheetos and a Chinese drama. This might be one of those times. 

Ash acquiesces and shakes his head before starting on another story. 

p(´⌒｀｡q)

“Hey.” 

Ash does not understand why anyone, let alone Eiji, has seen fit to greet him first thing in the morning. Or why Eiji sees fit to confront him at his locker  _ all the time _ . It is his safe place. He’s got all his cute little polaroids with Shorter and Griffin inside as well as every pretty highlighter he’s splurged on. It’s safe and cozy and his. Eiji’s gotta stop invading it. “...Hello.”

He’s cautious. Eiji doesn’t seem to notice. He’s wearing head to toe Nike today and Ash feels a little weirded out by the change. “Aslan Jade, I really liked your piece in the newspaper.”

Ash stares him like he grew a second head. “You read?” it leaves his mouth so fast that it even takes him by surprise, but not as much as it does Eiji because Eiji’s already wide doe eyes open wider. He looks comical and Ash  _ wants  _ to laugh but what he said was so fucked up he can only clutch his bag tight in shame.

“I mean, yeah? Most people read?” The nature of the question seems to have gone over his head and Ash is  _ so _ grateful for that. “But your piece was really good. How’d you learn to write like that?”

“...It’s 7:30. Please don’t expect me to answer that.” Ash turns back to his locker and locks eyes with a picture of Griff giving him bunny ears. It’s a nice picture. It grounds him. 

“I just didn’t know boys as pretty as you can be smart too—“

Ash slams his locker closed and genuinely wants to die as people start to stare. “I knew all jocks were assholes, but you didn’t have to prove me right.” With red cheeks and his book shoved into his bag haphazardly, Ash storms down the hall to his first class of the day. 

Ash  _ really _ hates Okumura Eiji. Hates him and his never ending supply of athleisure clothing. He just barely hears Eiji calling an apology behind him and he takes a deep breath before continuing down the hall. He doesn't have time for this.

p(´⌒｀｡q)

Shorter bobs his head knowingly. “_T_ _ hat _ was fucked up.”

“It sure was,” Ash huffs, taking an angry sip of Pepsi. His ears are turning pink which is a sure sign that he’s feeling a great number of emotions. Shorter likes knowing this about him. “Like, who just says something like that? What a dickhead."

“What a dickhead.” Shorter repeats as he watches Yue Lung and Sing walk along the bleachers. Yue’s hair is loose with a single ornate clip keeping part of it from their eyes. They look super pretty. Shorter wants to say ‘hi’, but Ash would kill him for leaving so he just waves. 

Yue Lung stares at him but offers a small wave in turn so Shorter counts it as a win. 

“You got any more Eiji horror stories I should know about?” Shorter doesn’t move his eyes from Yue Lung as they sit down and move their hair over one shoulder. Their highlight is really nice today. Shorter should tell them later. “Cuz apparently you’ve been holding this in for a minute.”

Ash rolls his eyes as he watches Shorter eye Yue Lung. He hopes they actually talk to each other some time soon. It’s exhausting to watch them dance around like this. 

“He asked me to watch him practice.”

Shorter opens and closes his mouth for a moment. “Is  _ that _ why we’re here? I could be hot boxing in my  _ car,  _ man!”

“You wouldn’t be able to eye Yue like that if you were hot boxing in your car.” Ash counters in lieu of answering the question, sipping his Pepsi innocently. 

They are here because Ash wanted to see what all the fuss was about and not because Eiji asked Ash to watch him practice. Ash just wants to see Eiji jump to see if he has a reason to be a pole vault star. 

Not like he’d know the talent if he was looking for it. But it seems interesting. 

“Are you saying you’re doing me a favor?” Shorter asks, leaning closer to Ash. The joint’s a roach now and Ash snags it to take a quick hit of his own. 

“Sure am.”

“You’re  _ such _ a bitch, Ash. I'm gonna tell Griff you’re smoking. He’ll yell at you.” 

Griff hasn’t raised his voice at ash ever in his life so he doesn’t count that as a real threat. 

He’s finishing off the roach when Eiji finishes his stretches and starts running with a long pole in his hands and Ash realizes that he knows  _ nothing _ about pole vaulting. At first, it’s so foreign that ash can’t describe it. He can only marvel at the way Eiji’s body cuts through the air. 

The pole slides home in the little notch and Eiji  _ flies _ over the bar in his way like it’s not there at all. His back arches smoothly and the way he turns in the air genuinely takes Ash’s poor, gay breath away. It’s beautiful and elegant and Ash..gets it. 

Well, he doesn’t  _ really _ get it. He just thinks it’s kind of hot and isn’t that  _ really  _ the same thing?

Ash can’t even function enough to bring his Pepsi bottle all the way to his mouth; his lips are hanging open the the bottle dangles precariously in the fingers of his right hand as he  _ stares _ . He may have a 180 iq — 18 _ 5 _ if you asked Griff — but he swears it’s shrunk all the way down to 80 with how struck he is. 

Shorter is saying something. Ash doesn’t start to listen until Shorter leans forward to wave his hand in front of Ash’s face. “_W_ _ hat _ ?”

“What the fuck were you thinking about?”

Ash is incredibly honest when he answers. “Eiji hot.”

“Eiji hot. You’re a _genius_ and that’s what you come up with?”

Ash squints at Shorter before he takes a swig or his Pepsi. “Describe Yue Lung in a full sentence.”

Shorter considers. “Yue pretty.” He tilts his head to Ash in silent concession. He got him there. “So what are you going to do about it?”

“Not a goddamn  _ thing _ .”

p(´⌒｀｡q)

The next day Ash is at his locker again and he’s miserable and coffee-less. He was late because Griff was late and his brother  _ is _ his ride until he can make it to the dmv to take his driving test. Then and only then will they always be on time. Ash doesn’t tolerate lateness. 

“Aslan Jade?” His government name makes him jump a few inches into the air and he turns his head to the side to see who in the fuck had the nerve to use it. 

He’s not surprised to see Eiji, he really isn’t. He lifts his head some and puts on his best _I'm_ _ better than you _ voice. “Yes?”

Eiji holds out a coffee — a  _ trenta  _ vanilla iced coffee, what the  _ fuck _ — with a benevolent smile that Ash simultaneously wants to smack and kiss right on off of his face. “I got this for you.”

_ What the  _ fuck?

“Pardon?” Ash’s whole facade drops in one fell swoop and he’s left gaping at Eiji for the second time in as many days. It’s honestly shameful, Ash has a baby of a reputation to protect in these parts. He is supposed to be a nerd, but a pretty standoffish one. He wants to keep that going. “Why...would you do that?”

“Well, you came to my practice last night when you didn’t have to and I’m really grateful for that so I wanted to repay you! That _and_ I wanted to really apologixe for what I said the other day. It was out of line. I’ve only ever seen you with Pepsi and this — I even made sure to get you almond milk!”

Ash has now idea how Eiji manages to know all of these very important things but he finds himself just nodding along. “Thank you?” Even to his own ears he sounds confused. He has to get over himself. 

“You’re welcome. I’ll see you in history this afternoon!” And with that, Eiji is off with the same swiftness he descended upon Ash with. 

Left in the pole vaulter’s dust Ash is left perplexed with his favorite coffee order. He whispers another confused  _ what the fuck  _ before he turns to the locker to grab his English text book. 

What the actual  _ fuck _ just happened?

p(´⌒｀｡q)

Ash and Shorter are on the bleachers watching the track team dick around with their equipment and stretch when Yue Lung climbs the stairs to stand in front of them. Even Ash has to admit they look pretty today with a pretty purple tunic and jean shorts. Their sneakers look expensive and Ash  _ knows  _ that’s the way right to Shorter’s stupid, gay sneaker head heart. 

Their lipgloss is nice, too, Ash wonders where they got it. 

“What’s up, mooncake?” Shorter asks with a false calm, shifting up on his elbows as he looks at them over his sunglasses. The only reason Ash knows he’s blushing is the fact that he  _ knows _ Shorter. “You're looking cute, today.”

“Thanks.” Their hands rest on their hips and they take a deep breath before leaning forward and snatching Shorter’s sunglasses right off of his face. “You’re going to take me out on a date on friday, got it? Dress nice because I will only accept your shiniest Jordans in my presence.” Yue Lung doesn’t return the sunglasses so Ash has the distinct pleasure of watching Shorter gape at them with wide, adoring eyes. 

Ash cackles as he leans back and shorter just whispers “yo, what the  _ fuck _ ” over and over again. At least his day isn’t the only wild one. 

“They beat you to the punch,” he says, sipping a Pepsi Shorter had bought him from the vending machine. 

Shorter nods slowly and watches as Yue Lung slides the sunglasses onto their own eyes and plops down beside Sing to eat their snacks. “They sure  _ did _ …”

They sit in silence for a bit, both marveling over the crazy shit that just happened before Shorter nudges Ash. “I heard that Eiji brought you your favorite coffee.”

Ash squints. “He did.”

“Is it serious?” Shorter is mostly teasing, Ash knows this by the wiggle of his eyebrows and matching shiteating grin, but there’s something in his tone that belays seriousness. 

Ash doesn’t like that. He barely knows Eiji and he tells Shorter as much. Shorter is not bothered. 

“But he clearly wants to know more about  _ you _ . He read your article in the paper—“

“Most people read that—“

“—And talked to you about it. He calls you Aslan Jade and you like it. He brought you your  _ favorite  _ coffee order. The man is clearly into you.”

The man in question is laughing with his team before he’s bullied into doing a short round of hurdles. He’s not as graceful at them as he is with the pole vault but the line of his body is  _ gorgeous _ and Ash is a useless gay teen who really just wants someone to hold his hand. 

Eiji cups a hand over his eyes when he’s done and scans the bleachers, perking up when he sees Ash and waving excitedly. 

“...You think so?” It’s honestly a bit of a stupid question but saying it aloud grants Ash an immense amount of joy. Ash waves back at Eiji and offers him a small smile of his own. “Should I say something?”

Before Shorter can actually answer, Eiji breaks away from the rest of the obnoxious sports boys on the field and jogs up to the bleachers. Ash tries to make it a point  _ not _ to stare at Eiji’s thighs but he fails for the most part. Oh, well, it’s not like they’re bad thighs to look at. “I think he’s coming up here.”

Ash sucks his teeth in exasperation and shields his own eyes so he can look down at Eiji. “Hi.”

“Hey.” Eiji is grinning so wide that ash is actually a little angry about it but he pushes the frustration at his pretty face down. “This is the second time you watched my practice.”

“We’re not the only ones here,” Ash points out, gesturing vaguely to the assembled groups on the bleachers. He doesn't point out the fact that Eiji asked him to come the first time.

“But  _ you  _ are here. Will you come and watch me again?”

Ash squints beneath his hand and raises a brow at Eiji. “Who said I was watching  _ you _ , Okumura?”

“You did. Just now! Anyway, I have to get back to practice but I would really like for you to come to more practices and meets.” Eiji’s the most earnest fuckboy Ash has ever seen in his _life_. 

“To see you?” Ash asks, just to make sure.

“To see me,” Eiji answers, brushing some sweat from his brow. Ash realizes then that if doesn’t care what front he puts up, as long as Eiji acts like this, he’ll do anything the dumbass asks. 

So instead of the I _ ’ll think about it  _ he want to say, he responds with “I’ll be here tomorrow.” A part of him is afraid that he'll regret it, but the bright smile on Eiji's face is telling him that he won't.

**Author's Note:**

> pls talk to me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/solarsenshii) i'm sad and love yue lung.


End file.
